Bialkin Declines Invite to Greece

Kenneth Bialkin, outgoing chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has declined an invitation to visit Greece on grounds that “the government of Greece in recent years has followed a pattern of pro-PLO and anti-Israel activity.”

Bialkin, who will be succeeded on July I by Morris Abram, was responding to an invitation sent to him and several other American Jewish leaders by Andrew Manatos, a principal of a Washington firm representing Greek American groups.

The invitation was on behalf of major Greek ship-owners and other businesses. Bialkin, in a letter to Manatos, acknowledged that Greece has recently shown “signs of greater balance and inclination toward a warming of relations with Israel” but maintained that “until there has been some greater demonstration” of this change of attitude, it would not be appropriate to accept the invitation.